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The Army of the Potomac and its Reorganization.

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It is hardly possible, without some acquaintance with the interior constitution of an army, as modern armies are organized, to appreciate how profoundly the entire structure of the Army of the Potomac will be affected by the brief order of the War Department yesterday made public. The official document simply announces a consolidation of the First and Third Corps with the three remaining corps of that army, which will henceforth be composed of the Second, Fifth and Sixth Corps.

Now, the making good of this order involves first a process of analysis, by which the corps organization of the two named bodies will be resolved into its subordinate units of force -- that is, into its divisions; the divisions into their brigades, and the brigades into their battalions or regiments; and then a process of synthesis, whereby the battalions, brigades and divisions of the two consolidated corps will be distributed among and interwoven with the three corps which will henceforth constitute the Army of the Potomac. In the realization of this reorganization, therefore, every member of the army, whether superior or subordinate, will find itself more or less touched in its position, its relations or its Commander. Two Corps Commanders of course lose their commands, and the same fate befalls several Division and Brigade Commanders. The men find themselves among new associates, surrounded by other traditions, and led by different leaders.

This radical transformation touches a set of interests, associations, and, if you will, prejudices, that should not be lightly dealt with. A corps d'armee is, as the very name imports, an army body; that is, it is an individual unit of force, capable of moving, and of fighting, independently. It is the creation of the great NAPOLEON, and is adopted in the organization of every modern army. But a corps has not only an existence of its own -- it has a history of its own, and a history with which those belonging to it come to identify themselves most intimately. Sharing the fortunes and the toils, the traditions and the glories of their special corps, soldiers feel themselves personally bound up with it. The "Gallant Second," the "Fighting Sixth," (we use these epithets merely by way of illustration,) become to every man wearing the trefoil of the one, or the cross of the other, objects of special pride and affection. They of course glory in the army, whose larger honors and history they share; but their corps they love with an affection that is peculiar and personal. Now, we say that such sentiments should be tenderly dealt with. They form the very essence of that quality which, taking its name from the organizations of which we have been speaking, is called esprit de corps -- an impalpable but potent spirit which constitutes the strongest cohesive force of an army, and by enlisting the imagination, the pride, the ambition of soldiers, indefinitely multiplies their moral power.

It is plain, from these considerations, that such relations should only be disturbed when the interference is authorized by some adequate compensating advantage. We believe such is the case in the reorganization that has been effected in the Army of the Potomac, and we will very briefly touch on some of the reasons that may have prompted the consolidation of the First and Third Corps. And firstly, all the corps have, by losses in battle and by disease, become greatly reduced in numbers. For example, the Second Corps alone has lost not less than twenty-five thousand men. A corps with its full complement should number forty thousand; but such as, previously to the late recruiting, had one-half that strength would have been accounted unusually strong, and there were others that had not more than one-fourth that number -- that is, the strength of a full division. The consolidation of the five corps into three will therefore give to each something like its adequate effective force. It will also put the army in better marching, manoeuvring, and fighting trim. The three corps will form a natural Right, Left and Centre -- a result which has frequently to be obtained by an inconvenient severing of divisions and transferring them provisionally to other commands. Gen. BURNSIDE sought to effect the same object by forming the six corps, then constituting the Potomac army, into three "Grand Divisions" of two corps each -- a plan theoretically good, and modeled after the French system, but which, in practice, was not found to work well, chiefly from a defect which it has been one of the aims of the present reorganization to remedy. The fault to which we allude lay with the Corps Commanders, some of whom, whether through personal views, through lukewarmness and want of zeal, or through a constitutional leaning to mere red-tape and routine, exercised their high commands in such a fashion as to baulk and bring to naught several well-planned operations.

The three Generals now commanding the three corps of the Army of the Potomac are each of them men of approved ability, zeal and energy: SEDGWICK, the vieux sabreur, devoted to duty, indomitable, and not to be beaten or broken even by the legions that enveloped him on the heights of Fredericks-burgh -- HANCOCK, the hero of Gettysburgh, an officer of the highest executive ability, unequaled in his eye for ground, and in action rapid as the electric flash -- WARREN, a brilliant young soldier, the victor of Bristoe, and the Dessaix of the war.

Looking at it as a whole, therefore, we regard the present reorganization of the Army of the Potomac as what its numerous previous reorganizations have not been -- a positive and substantial improvement. And if it dissolves some old associations, and breaks up some ancient comradeship, we trust those affected by it will be contented for the sake of its larger results.

In carrying out the consolidation Gen. MEADE has been careful to consult the sentiments to which we have alluded, and has permitted the members of the merged corps to retain their corps badges.

The Army of the Potomac, as it stands to-day, is in its numbers, its organization, its Commanders, its discipline, and its morale, in a condition of strength and efficiency surpassing any previous period of its history. May it be rewarded for all its toils, all its merits and all its reverses, by the splendor and success of the coming campaign under Lieut.-Gen. GRANT.

A version of this archives appears in print on March 26, 1864, on Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: The Army of the Potomac and its Reorganization. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe